CHIMPANZEE AND HUMAN CULTURES

Culture has traditionally been attributed only to human beings. Despit e growing evidence of behavioral diversity in wild chimpanzee populati ons, most anthropologists and psychologists still deny culture to this animal species. We argue here that culture is not monolithic but a se t of processes. These processes show much diversity both in the social norms and models that determine which individuals will be exposed to particular cultural variants and what cultural variants will be presen t in the population and in the social learning mechanisms that determi ne the fidelity of transmission of the variants over time. Recognition of the diversity of these processes is important because it affects c ultural dissemination, cultural evolution, and the complexity of cultu ral artifacts. A comparison of chimpanzee and human cultures shows man y deep similarities, thus suggesting that they share evolutionary root s. Two possible differences between the two species are discussed. Fir st, thanks to indirect means of transmission such as language, cultura l dissemination is possible over greater stretches of time and space i n humans than in chimpanzees. Second, human cultures rely more intensi vely than chimpanzee cultures on cumulative cultural evolution through the ratchet effect, which allows the accumulation of modifications ov er time and produces more elaborate cultural artifacts.